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I'm now in the market for a new bike - but I want to buy without the wheels - I've got a wheelset built around a powertap. I was looking at Ribble ( wonder how many people stop reading here...) - but have looked around and there's a few decent bikes out there that don't break the bank. I don't race, more endurance - centuries, doubles, 24 hrs etc, so comfort is more important that flatout speed. If I were to build my own, I'd obviously need frameset, groupset, bars, stem, seat post / saddle / pedals.

If you had £1200 budget ( not much, granted ) what would you go for? I can get a Ribble Gran Fondo, which has the curved top bar which I like. Any ideas or is this too subjective?

I'm on an orbea aqua now - and the next step up, which has decent reviews, is the Onix 105. But I can't buy without buying the wheelset as well, and I don't want spares ( have them ) and don't really want to then ebay to try and get the money back.

Bikes: Catrike 559 I own some others but they don't get ridden very much.

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Not really.

When you have a limited budget it's hard to think about spending part of that budget on something (wheels) that you don't really want. Here's another way of thinking about it: Price out what it would cost to piece together the bike that you want. Chances are that's going to be more than buying the complete bike with wheels. In other words, once you buy the bike the wheels are a free extra. Whether you sell the wheels or just throw them away, you're still money ahead.

I have bought many a complete bike to get a series of components, then either built the bike back up with other components and sold it, or sold off the components. It is a helluva lot cheaper to buy a complete bike that it is to try and build one up from scratch. Example, I have a steel frame that I am building a city bike up for my son with. Parts were going to total out close to $700 not including any labor. I could have purchased a Torker Graduate for ~$450, gotten the wheels and some other odd bits off of it, thrown a set of single speed wheels on it, sold and recouped most of my cost. Price everything out a couple of ways then do what makes the most sense for you.

Aaron

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Why not just get a frame and parts? There are lots of good frames out there, from Kinisis, Ribble, Planet X etc, then get a groupset (like 5700) from one of the German bike shops like Rose (much cheaper than the UK), that will be £6-800 leaving you change for the rest of the kit, which will get you some nice Alu, or cheaper carbon parts.

If you can pop down the A5 / M1 to Milton Keynes, Phil Corley Cycles has a sale on at the moment, there maybe something in there that would work.

As you don't want to ebay the wheels, have you asked in any LBS's if they will discount you a bike with out the wheels?

Buying parts at retail is really poor value compared to getting a complete bike. Just look on the extra wheels as backup/spares. Ribble do a bikebuilder so simply spec the lowest grade wheels. You could call them to see about a bike minus wheelset.
Kinesis and Tifosi are 2 other brands similar in grade and build to Ribble.

Buying parts at retail is really poor value compared to getting a complete bike. Just look on the extra wheels as backup/spares. Ribble do a bikebuilder so simply spec the lowest grade wheels. You could call them to see about a bike minus wheelset.
Kinesis and Tifosi are 2 other brands similar in grade and build to Ribble.

Up to a point, but wheels are one of the biggest factors of cost in a bike, especally with a Powertap wheel. Look around, and if you already have a few bits, a parts build can be done cheaply, buy you need to be prepared to order from Germany for this, as they are currently much cheaper than the UK.

The OP hasn't really given much of a spec that they want; and being unwilling to ebay any spares like the wheels virtully forces them into buying parts alone. If the OP was willing to break a bike, some killer deals are out there, they could buy the frame they wanted, and a full bike say from CRC, break the CRC bike for parts, and have a very cheap bike, but they don't seem want to do this.

What's CRC? It's going to be embarrassingly obvious when you tell me, and yes, willing to break. I'm willing to go ebay / germany, whatever. I just said I didn't really want to buy wheels and sell them straight away on ebay. Perhaps I'm being thick, but I can't seem to source any groupsets from germany online? Can somebody give me a sample link for lets say Ultegra 6700?